PivotEast 2012: Concepts to rollouts

Unlike politicians, presenting companies at the PivotEast 2012 conference don't have empty promises; their solutions are practically viable to society problems. They have tried to perfect these business concepts and ideas, flowing out of their company walls to be best fostered in unfettered environments.

By
Peter Nalika
| 05 Jun 2012

Unlike politicians, presenting companies at the PivotEast 2012 conference don't have empty promises; their solutions are practically viable to society problems. They have tried to perfect these business concepts and ideas, flowing out of their company walls to be best fostered in unfettered environments.

PivotEast 2012 regional mobile apps competition and conference rolled out today at the Ole Sereni Hotel in Nairobi, it is an m:Lab initiative that brings focus on mobile development and the entrepreneur community in East Africa. The event attracted 204 applicants who had different project ideas but only 25 were selected to present their ideas to a team of investors for further funding.

Developers had seven minutes to pitch their ideas, starting with the financial sector, Roverscompass was first on stage with Chnagamka, an app that links people with various ideas to potential sponsors and investors. Mcollector by Software Group Kenya, presented second, their application brings about transparency in financial operations of microfinance institutions. Other applications presented during the morning session of the ongoing mobile apps competition include Pay4Us by Zege technologies, School Bursar by Fomobi Solutions and ChamaPro by Bityarn Consultant company ltd.

Project investors who played judges weren't just ready to shake their money trees for developers; they seem to be looking for why different developers needed funding and if their ideas are viable. On the other hand, developers defended their top priorities on stage, which was to convince the judges for financial resources and getting exposure and visibility to the outside world.

Last year during Pivot25 conference mfarm, an application that links farmers to different markets for their products got exposed. The application attracted proposals from 15 different countries seeking partnership to replicate the company's idea internationally.Most of developers ideas revolved around giving individuals online tools (apps) that enable them solve simple societal problems. Solutions on information management for small investment groups (Chamas, how they are referred to, locally) to applications that help individuals back up and restore cellphone contacts in the cloud when need arises.

These solutions in as much as they are meant to spur revenue to individual companies they received good ratings towards driving business platforms.

PivotEast conference runs for two days (5th and 6th of June) and the winning applications will be announced during the dinner on the 6th of June.